Ephesians 4.20b-The Gentile Christian Community Learned About the Christ Through Personal Experience
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday June 28, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:20b-The Gentile Christian Community Learned About the Christ Through Personal Experience
Lesson # 265
Ephesians 4:17 Therefore, at this particular time I am communicating, specifically, at this particular time I am solemnly and earnestly making a request on the basis of the Lord’s sovereign authority. Namely, that each and every one of you as a corporate unit continue to no longer make it your habit of conducting your lives as in fact the Gentiles are conducting their lives by means of the futility produced by their thinking. 18 Specifically, because they are darkened with respect to their understanding (of the three-fold revelation of the triune God). Consequently, they are alienated from the life, which originates uniquely in the character and nature of the one and only God because of the ignorance, which is a characteristic within them because of the hardness, which is produced by the function unique to their hearts. 19 Because they are characterized as insensitive (to God and His will and ways), each and every one of them as a corporate unit have given themselves over to self-indulgence for the purpose of practicing every type of sexual immorality in an inordinate and insatiable manner. 20 On the contrary, by no means whatsoever in this manner did each and every one of you as a corporate unit learn about the one and only Christ through experience. (Lecturer’s translation)
The proper name Christos (Χριστός) refers of course to Jesus of Nazareth and is used to describe the incarnate Son of God as well as His person and work and what He has accomplished in history through this work as well as His status in relation to creation and every creature. Thus, it also describes His relationship to the church.
The word Christos (Χριστός) denotes the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth; thus He is the Deliverer of the human race in three areas through His death, resurrection, ascension and session: (1) Satan (2) Cosmic System (3) Old Sin Nature.
The Lord’s Messiahship has a four-fold significance: (1) Separation unto God. (2) Authorization from God. (3) Divine enablement. (4) The coming Deliverer. It also signifies the uniqueness of Jesus of Nazareth who is the God-Man.
The proper name Christos (Χριστός) signifies that Jesus of Nazareth served God the Father exclusively and this was manifested by His execution of the Father’s salvation plan which was accomplished by His voluntary substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross.
The word signifies that Jesus of Nazareth has been given authority by God the Father to forgive sins, give eternal life, and authority over all creation and every creature as a result of His execution of the Father’s salvation plan.
It denotes that Jesus of Nazareth was perpetually guided and empowered by God the Holy Spirit during His First Advent.
Lastly, Christos (Χριστός) signifies that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised deliverer of the human race from the bondage of Satan, his cosmic system and the old Adamic sin nature.
The articular construction of this word Christos (Χριστός) also indicates that the referent of this word is in a class by himself.
Therefore, it indicates that Jesus of Nazareth is the only one deserving of this name or title since there were many individuals in the first century A.D. who claimed to be the Christ or were proclaimed to be the Christ.
Thus, this construction speaks of the incomparability of Christ.
The proper name Christos (Χριστός) contains the figure of metonymy which means that the person of Christ, who is Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate Son of God, is put for an experiential knowledge of Him.
This would involve possessing His humble mindset and resultant godly lifestyle, which Paul describes in Philippians 2:5-11.
This personal experiential knowledge of Christ is based upon obedience to Spirit inspired Christian doctrine, which conforms the believer experientially into the image of Christ.
This interpretation is supported by the fact that in context Paul is presenting a contrast between the experience of these Gentile Christians in the Roman province of Asia and the experience of unregenerate Gentile humanity.
Specifically, it marks a contrast between these Gentile Christians learning about the person of Christ through their life experience with that of the life experience of unregenerate Gentile humanity.
The former is based upon obedience to Paul’s Spirit inspired teaching and results in a godly mindset and lifestyle, which results in pleasing God and doing His will.
The latter is based upon obedience to the indwelling old Adamic sin nature and Satan’s cosmic world system, which results in sin and rebellion against God.
An experiential knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ speaks of the church age believer personally encountering the person of Jesus Christ and also being affected by this encounter in that they gain more practical wisdom and as a result they mature with regards to Christian character.
The child of God personally encounters the person of Jesus Christ by exercising faith in the Spirit inspired Scriptures and being affected by this encounter in that they gain a practical wisdom and more of the character of Christ.
So therefore, an “experiential knowledge” of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ involves the believer personally encountering Him through the process of fellowship as He is revealed by the Holy Spirit in the pages of Scripture and prayer and being affected by this encounter with the Lord.
The verb manthanō (μανθάνω) pertains to acquiring information about a particular subject through experience, which is the direct of obeying instruction, whether in an informal or formal context.
The referent of the second person plural form of this verb is of course the recipients of this epistle.
The meaning of this verb is emphatically negated by the emphatic negative adverb ouk (οὐκ) and the proper name Christos (Χριστός) functions as the accusative direct object of this verb.
Therefore, this expresses the idea of the recipients of this epistle “by no means whatsoever learning about” the person of Christ “through experience” so as to possess the ungodly mindset and resultant ungodly lifestyle of unregenerate Gentile humanity as described in Ephesians 4:17-19.
Many expositors interpret the aorist tense of the verb manthanō (μανθάνω) as a consummative aorist, which stresses the cessation of an act or state and as Wallace notes, “Certain verbs, by their lexical nature, virtually require this usage.”
Therefore, this type of aorist would be emphasizing the cessation of the act of knowing Christ experientially and in particular the moment of the believer’s justification when they first experienced Him in their lives.
On the other hand, some expositors interpret the aorist tense of this verb manthanō (μανθάνω) as a constative aorist, which describes the action in summary fashion without focusing on the beginning or end of the action and it simply places emphasis upon the fact of the occurrence, not its nature.
Therefore, the aorist tense of this verb describes in summary fashion the recipients of this epistle by no means whatsoever learning about the person of Christ through experience so as to possess the ungodly mindset and resultant ungodly lifestyle of unregenerate Gentile humanity as described in Ephesians 4:17-19.
I believe that the latter is the correct interpretation of the aorist tense of the verb manthanō (μανθάνω) because Paul is marking a contrast between the lifestyle of unregenerate Gentile humanity and regenerate Gentile humanity.
Secondly, chapters 4-6 present the application of the doctrinal section of this epistle, which is contained in the first three chapters of this epistle.
In fact, in the immediate context, namely in Ephesians 4:21-32, Paul is addressing the importance of the believer post-justification experience and specifically, that of experiencing their sanctification by putting of the old indwelling Adamic sin nature and putting on the new Christ nature.
The latter involves the believer appropriating by faith their union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father (cf. Rom. 6:1-13; Col. 3:1-5).
Lastly, in Ephesians 4:7-16, Paul emphasizes the importance of the function of the communication gifts of apostleship, prophecy and teaching in relation to the spiritual growth of the believer and the function of their spiritual gift.
The gift of evangelism we noted is related to the non-Christian.
So therefore, the aorist tense of the verb manthanō (μανθάνω) in Ephesians 4:20 is not emphasizing the moment of justification but rather the period of time in which the believer is receiving doctrinal instruction after their justification.
Now, in Ephesians 4:20, the entire expression ouch houtōs emathete (οὐχ οὕτως ἐμάθετε) also contains the figure of litotes, which is a statement negated in order to emphasize a positive notion.
Therefore, this figure expresses the idea that it is an utter impossibility that the recipients of this epistle learned about Christ through experience so as to possess the ungodly mindset and resultant ungodly lifestyle of unregenerate Gentile humanity as described in Ephesians 4:17-19.
In other words, their experiential knowledge of Christ through obedience to the Word of God emphatically did not result in them thinking and living like unregenerate Gentile humanity think and live their lives.
So therefore, this figure emphatically affirms that the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia by no means whatsoever learned about the person of Christ experientially so as to think and live like the members of the unregenerate Gentile community, which is described in Ephesians 4:17-19.
In Ephesians 4:13, the apostle Paul has addressed the subject of the recipients of this epistle possessing an experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ, which he teaches is related to their spiritual growth into Christ-likeness.
Ephesians 4:11 Therefore, on the one hand, He Himself generously gave some to be apostles but on other hand, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors, specifically, teachers 12 for the purpose of equipping the saints for performing the work of service in order to ultimately build up the members of Christ’s body 13 until each and every one of us as a corporate unit attains to experiencing the unity produced by obedience to the one and only Christian faith. Correspondingly, until all of us without exception attains to the unity produced by an experiential knowledge of God’s Son. Until each and every one of us as a corporate unit attains to experiencing a mature man. Until all of us without exception attains to experiencing proportionately to the full stature of the one and only Christ’s character. (Lecturer’s translation)
